Name Awesome

Kaleigh

#2,973 in 2025Girls' name

Kayleigh or Callie form; meaning depends on route

Kaleigh has been given to 16,250 babies in the U.S. since 1980. In 2025 it ranked #2,973 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2001, with 729 recorded.

Babies named Kaleigh, 2025

1 in 59,200

Kaleigh over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kaleigh: meaning, origin, and history

Kayleigh or Callie form; meaning depends on route

Modern English

About Kaleigh

Kaleigh is a modern English spelling with two established readings: KAY-lee, related to Kayleigh, and KAL-ee, related to Callie. Its history depends on which form it represents. Olympic water-polo player and surfer Kaleigh Gilchrist gives this particular spelling a distinctive connection with two different water sports.

Two naming routes

In the Kayleigh tradition, Kaleigh belongs to the modern Kaylee family. Kaylee was formed from the popular sounds kay and lee, rather than from one ancient word with a fixed translation.

The Kayleigh spelling gained wider attention through a Marillion song released in 1985. Kaleigh is a related written form, leaving out the y while preserving the familiar two-syllable sound when pronounced KAY-lee.

The Callie route is different. Callie can shorten Caroline or other names beginning with Cal-. Caroline belongs to the Carolus and Charles family, usually connected with Germanic Karl, meaning “man,” though an alternative origin in an element meaning “army” has been proposed.

These routes explain why Kaleigh should not be assigned one universal ancient meaning. The relationship with Kayleigh or Callie is clearer than any single translation that would cover both.

Kaleigh Gilchrist

Kaleigh Gilchrist won Olympic gold with the United States women’s water-polo team in 2016 and at Tokyo 2020. She also played at the University of Southern California, where she was a member of the 2013 NCAA championship team.

Her sporting life also includes surfing. She won U.S. surfing championships in 2009 and 2010, and took time away from the national water-polo team in 2017 to return to professional surfing.

That combination makes her a particularly memorable bearer: the same name appears in both a team sport played in a pool and an individual sport on ocean waves. Her career includes college competition, national teams, and international events.

Gilchrist studied communications at USC, with a minor in occupational science. Her family also had an earlier Olympic connection: her father Sandy swam in the 1964 and 1968 Games.

Gilchrist also represented the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics, scoring five goals. Her Olympic career therefore extends beyond the two gold-medal tournaments.

Pronunciation and related forms

KAY-lee stresses the first syllable and rhymes with daily. KAL-ee also stresses the beginning, but uses the vowel of cat. Both are recorded for Kaleigh, so a particular bearer’s pronunciation matters.

Kayleigh and Kaylee are the closest forms in the first group. Callie and Caroline belong to the second. The two histories meet in the spelling Kaleigh without becoming the same name family.

American popularity

Kaleigh’s largest annual American total for girls was 729 in 2001, when it ranked #399. In 2025 it was given to 56 girls and ranked #2,973.

The American high point came before Gilchrist’s Olympic victories. The spelling already had a substantial naming history before that sporting association.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Existing Wiktionary material is attributed under CC BY-SA 4.0 where applicable. Popularity figures use the local SSA series for this exact spelling; name-sex-year counts below five are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How popular is Kaleigh?

In 2025, Kaleigh ranked #2,973 among girls in the United States, with 56 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1980; its largest annual count was 729 in 2001. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.

How common is Kaleigh?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 59,200
56 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 28,700
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#2,973
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
41,035 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kaleigh sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 41,035 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kaleigh. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kaleighs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kaleigh was born before 2002 — so the typical Kaleigh is around 23 today.

Median birth year
2002
About 23 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
38.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
54.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
16,244
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 38.7% of all recorded uses (6,286).

Is Kaleigh rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−215
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,290
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,921
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.22×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
7.7%
Peak was 2001 (729)
Years since peak
24
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
11.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#399
2001

Spellings of Kaleigh

Kaleigh is not the most common spelling — Leigh is, with 14.2% against Kaleigh's 5.7%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Kaleigh is used

Across 2016–2025, Kaleigh was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 2,128 girls, against 1 in 13,924 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in 100,000).

147 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 2,128
  2. 2Alabama1 in 2,941
  3. 3Louisiana1 in 3,333
  4. 4South Carolina1 in 4,348
  5. 5Georgia1 in 4,762
  6. 6North Carolina1 in 6,667
  7. 7Tennessee1 in 11,111
  8. 8Virginia1 in 12,500

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Kaleigh around the world

Where Kaleigh ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2010
    #2,589
    in 2010
  • Scotland
    1985–1996
    #483
    in 1996
  • Ireland
    1997–2006
    #764
    in 2006
  • Canada
    1991–2020
    #2,355
    in 2020
  • South Australia
    1988–2013
    #818
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Kaleigh

People whose public names include Kaleigh, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Kaleigh by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#2,973
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,290
Best rank ever
#399
2001
Peak year
2001
729 that year
First recorded
1980
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
16,244
Count in 2025
56

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#10,654
2004
Peak year
2004
6 that year
First recorded
2004
Last recorded
2004
All-time count
6
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Kaleigh

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

KalleighKaliyahKallieKalaniHaleighKyleighKaleyKalistaRyleighKaleenaKaleahKalinaKalynnKalynCaleighKalayahKaliaKalishaKalenaKaliahKalliKalieAshleighKalissa

Names with a curve like Kaleigh

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Kaleigh, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

CarlieCarleyKaylynKaitlynnKierstenKaleyBryannaEmileeTiannaKarliKatelynnTess

Sibling names for Kaleigh

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Kaleigh

Top names of 2001, Kaleigh's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2001Girls' names starting with K